Environmental Echo

MDC Conservation Agent Jaymes Hall holds a wounded bald eagle at the Word Bird Sanctuary. MDC is seeking information from the public on the incident. Call 1-800-392-1111 to report any tips.

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) is investigating the shooting of a male bald eagle near the town of Belgrade in southern Washington County. The incident occurred at the intersection of Highways C and Z and is believed to have happened on Feb. 3 or 4.

On Feb. 5 MDC Washington County Conservation Agent Jaymes Hall received a report about the injured bald eagle from the U.S. Forest Service office in Potosi. Agent Hall responded and found the male bald eagle in a field near a nest, with its mate in the nest. Conservation Agent Hall verified the eagle was seriously injured and determined it needed to be captured so its injuries could be treated. Agent Hall was able to capture the eagle with the help of Viburnum Police Chief, Hershel Shipman.

“A special thank you goes out to Chief Shipman for his assistance,” said Hall.

Agent Hall transported the injured eagle immediately to the World Bird Sanctuary (WBS) in Valley Park. WBS staff examined the eagle and found that the bird’s right wing was dislocated and severely fractured. A closer examination revealed two gunshot wounds through the joint connecting the wing to the torso. Based on the extent of tissue healing, WBS estimated the bald eagle was shot on Feb. 3 or 4.

WBS operated on the bald eagle hoping to repair its injuries and rehabilitate it. Those injuries were too extensive however, and the bird did not survive.

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Newly-elected state Rep. Bruce Sassmann and his wife, Jan.

By Don Corrigan

Newly-elected state Rep. Bruce Sassmann, R-Bland, was recently appointed to the Missouri House Committee on Conservation and Natural Resources. He brings unrivaled credentials to this work to be done under the dome in Jefferson City.

Sassmann and his wife, Jan, have taken a family farm and converted it into what they call the Prairie Star Restoration Farm. They give tours of the prairie site, where they have built replicas of the outdoor shelters of Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold and also a site for John Muir.

Thoreau, Leopold and Muir are praised by Sassmann as the “holy trinity of conservation.” But Sassman has brought his own brand of conservation to the farm, where he gives educational tours of the restored farm’s indigenous flora and fauna.

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Pictured: Brandon Butler’s Ozark cabin retreat after it was set on fire in a possible retaliation incident for reporting a poaching incident.

by Don Corrigan

The great outdoors is not always idyllic. It can be full of blood-sucking chiggers and mosquitoes, unhappy skunks, thieving bears and obnoxious rodents. Then there are other humans, who can be disagreeable, destructive and downright dangerous.

Missouri Outdoor Communicator Brandon Butler had an experience with the human kind recently that left him with a cabin reduced to burning embers and what he calls “a sad deal.”

Butler is pretty sure his cabin in the Ozarks near Timber was burnt to the ground in retaliation for reporting a poaching incident. The incident involved deer hunting infractions at the beginning of the rifle portion of deer season in November.

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Pictured: Bruce Sassmann by Jessalynn Cairer Photography.

By Don Corrigan

Take a tour of Prairie Star Restoration Farm, between Bland and Belle, Mo., and you’re likely to get an earful from landowner Bruce Sassmann. Yeah, some of that earful will be a load about composting, but a lot of it will be quotes from his conservation idols.

Sassmann loves conservationists and has built guest shelters on the property that are replicas of historic haunts of Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold and John Muir. Thoreau’s house on Sassman’s farm even includes a pond – think Walden Pond.

A tour of Prairie Star Restoration Farm will take you past fields of wildflowers on the way to the replica cabin of Henry David Throeau on Walden Pond.

As you approach the Leopold site modeled after the original shack in Sand County, Wisconsin, Sassman will start quoting the famous conservationist in a low whisper. Sassman is kind of a conservation whisperer.

“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us,” begins Sassman, with his low Leopold recitation. “When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”

According to Sassmann, “If I picked only one Leopold quote to savor, I think Aldo would approve of that one. Aldo Leopold is my conservation hero. He weaves his philosophy and ecology into poetic science.”

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